Keyword Difficulty Checker
See how hard it is to rank for any keyword on the App Store or Google Play — scored 0–100 from the live apps currently holding the top spots.
What is keyword difficulty?
Keyword difficulty is a 0–100 estimate of how hard it is to rank in the top search results for a keyword on the App Store or Google Play. It's computed from the apps that currently hold the top 10 spots for that search: how many reviews they have, how highly they're rated, how many carry the keyword in their title, and how many distinct publishers share those spots. The higher the score, the stronger the incumbents you'd have to displace.
The score lands in one of four bands — the same bands AppDrift's paid tracker shows beside every tracked keyword. For most apps, the realistic hunting ground is the Easy and Moderate bands; Competitive keywords need existing traction, and Very hard keywords are effectively closed to new entrants.
| Score | Band | What it means for your app |
|---|---|---|
| 0–29 | Easy | Winnable for a new app. The current top 10 has beatable apps — put the keyword in your title or subtitle. |
| 30–59 | Moderate | Winnable with solid metadata and some download velocity. The realistic contested zone for most indie apps. |
| 60–79 | Competitive | Established apps hold the top spots. Target only with existing traction — otherwise chase a longer-tail variant. |
| 80–100 | Very hard | Dominated by heavyweight apps. Ranking is unrealistic for most apps — spend these metadata characters elsewhere. |
How the difficulty score works
Review strength — 40%
How many ratings the current top 10 apps have. Heavily-reviewed incumbents are hard to displace.
Rating quality — 20%
The average star rating of the top apps. A wall of 4.8-star apps is tougher than a shaky 3.9 field.
Title match — 20%
How many top apps already use the exact keyword in their title — the strongest ranking field.
Publisher dominance — 20%
How many distinct developers hold the top spots. Fewer publishers means a more locked-up keyword.
Get keyword picks worth targeting
One winnable-keyword tactic a week, from live difficulty data. No spam.
Launching an app? The one-time Launch Pack ($19) does metadata, 10 locales & 30 days of rank tracking — no subscription.
Benchmarks: what 604 live difficulty checks showed
This checker's methodology isn't a black box — we published the full model and the data. In our study of 604 scored keyword checks (580 distinct keywords, 9 countries, February–August 2026), the average iOS keyword scored 61.7/100 against 44.1/100 on Google Play — and not one of 193 Android keywords broke 80, while 27 iOS keywords did. Generic single words like “sleep” (90) and “calendar” (88) are fortresses on iOS; even “habit tracker” scored 84. Use those numbers to calibrate what a “good” score looks like before you read your own results.
Honest caveats for Android scores
- Google Play's public search returns only ~25–30 results for most queries (the median in our data was exactly 30; iOS returns ~200) — so an Android difficulty score describes a roughly 30-slot SERP. Ranking outside it delivers essentially nothing.
- Popularity uses different signals per platform — install volumes on Google Play, review volumes on the App Store. Compare Android keywords against other Android keywords, never against iOS scores.
- Play exposes less complete review data than Apple (we enrich the top 5 Android results with full details), which can slightly deflate Android scores. The band is reliable; the precise digit is an estimate.
Free keyword difficulty checker vs paid ASO tools
Most ASO suites gate keyword difficulty behind a paid plan. Here is the honest comparison — including what the paid tools genuinely do better:
| This checker | AppDrift tracking | Typical paid suite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no sign-up | From $9.99/mo | ~$25–$500+/mo |
| Difficulty score | 0–100, live top 10 | Same scorer, every tracked keyword | Yes, methodology rarely published |
| Data freshness | Live check on demand | Re-scored with daily rank checks | Varies — often a cached index |
| Countries | 10 | 150+ storefronts | Varies by plan |
| Rank history & alerts | — | Daily ranks, drop alerts | Yes |
| Published methodology + dataset | Yes — 604-check study | Yes — same model | Rarely |
Weighing full suites against each other? We priced and compared them honestly in the best ASO tools guide.
Keyword difficulty FAQ
What is keyword difficulty in ASO?
Keyword difficulty is a 0-100 score estimating how hard it is to rank in the top results for a keyword on the App Store or Google Play. It's computed from the strength of the apps currently ranking: their review counts, ratings, how many use the keyword in their title, and how many distinct publishers compete. A difficulty of 80+ means the top spots are held by heavyweight apps; under 30 means the field is winnable for a new app.
How is this keyword difficulty score calculated?
The score analyzes the current top 10 ranking apps across four weighted factors: review strength (40%) — how many ratings the top apps have; rating quality (20%) — their average star rating; title match (20%) — how many already use the exact keyword in their title; and publisher dominance (20%) — how many distinct developers hold the top spots. It's the same scorer AppDrift's paid keyword tracker uses — every keyword you track in the dashboard shows this difficulty score and a popularity score beside its daily rank.
What is a good keyword difficulty to target?
For most indie apps, target keywords scoring under 60. Scores of 0-29 are genuinely easy wins, 30-59 are winnable with solid metadata and some download velocity, and 60-79 need an established app to crack. Keywords above 80 are dominated by household names — even ranking on page two is unlikely, so spend your metadata characters elsewhere.
How accurate is this keyword difficulty checker?
Every check runs against the live top 10 search results for that keyword, in that country's store, at that moment — no stale index, no estimates. The methodology is published in full, including a study of 604 real checks, so you can judge it rather than trust it. Difficulty is still a model of competition, not a guarantee: top tens change, so re-check keywords you care about every quarter or so.
What's the difference between keyword difficulty and popularity?
Difficulty measures competition — how strong the apps currently holding the top spots are. Popularity estimates demand — how much search traffic the keyword likely gets, inferred from the engagement of the top-ranking apps (review volume on the App Store, install volume on Google Play). The keywords worth targeting score high on popularity and low-to-moderate on difficulty; a difficulty of 20 is worthless if nobody searches the term.
Is keyword difficulty different on the App Store vs Google Play?
Yes — the same keyword can be easy on one store and brutal on the other, because different apps compete on each. In our study of 604 live checks, iOS keywords averaged 61.7/100 versus 44.1/100 on Google Play, and not one of 193 Android keywords scored above 73. Popularity signals also differ: Google Play difficulty factors in install counts, while the App Store uses review volume. Always check difficulty on the store you're actually optimizing for, and compare scores within a platform, not across platforms.
Why do Android keywords show lower difficulty scores?
Partly structure, partly measurement — both stated honestly. Structurally, Google Play's top tens include younger and smaller apps more often than the App Store's fortified top tens, and Play spreads apps across many more queries because it indexes long descriptions. On measurement: Play publicly exposes fewer signals than Apple does (roughly 30 visible search results, and less complete review data), which can deflate Android inputs slightly. Treat Android scores as comparable to other Android scores only.
Is this keyword difficulty checker really free?
Yes — free, no sign-up required, with live data pulled from the store you select. If you want to track keywords over time, get daily rank updates, and see difficulty for your whole keyword set in one dashboard, AppDrift's keyword tracking does that from $9.99/month.
Why Keyword Difficulty Decides Your ASO Strategy
Every keyword you target costs scarce metadata space — the App Store gives you just 160 indexed characters across title, subtitle, and keyword field. Spending them on a keyword you can't realistically rank for wastes the inventory entirely: apps outside the top results are effectively invisible, since the top 3 capture the overwhelming majority of organic taps. Checking difficulty before committing a keyword to your metadata is the single highest-leverage step in app store keyword research.
The sweet spot for most apps is moderate-difficulty keywords with real popularity: terms where the current top 10 includes beatable apps — few reviews, imperfect ratings, or titles that don't contain the keyword. Our guide to finding competitor keywords shows how to build a candidate list worth scoring, and the iOS keywords field guide covers exactly where each winning keyword should go.
Difficulty is one input of three. Once a keyword scores as winnable, check where you actually stand today with the free app store rank checker, and make sure your winners physically fit your metadata with the keyword space calculator — the App Store's 100-character keyword field fills faster than most developers expect. For the full workflow from candidate list to committed metadata, follow the step-by-step guide on how to check keyword difficulty for free.
This checker uses the same scorer as AppDrift's keyword tracking, which adds daily rank history, difficulty across your whole keyword set, and alerts when your rankings move — so difficulty becomes something you monitor, not something you check once.